Muck Truck Wins Patent/Design registration Dispute Against Chinese Company in the European Union for Stealing Muck Truck Design and Selling Powered WheelBarrows

On 29 January 2015, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market ('OHIM') decided the registered community designs ('RCDs') owned by Chinese company, Nantong ANT Machinery Co., Ltd ('Nantong') could not be considered 'new' as Muck Truck's identical design, had already been 'made available to the public' prior to Nantong's registrations. Muck Truck's own designs were published on 31 July 2007. Links to the OHIM website showing the invalidations of Nantong's RCDs are here and here

Muck Truck® Global announced today that the Trademarks and Design Office on the European Union has ruled in favor of Muck Truck against the Nantong ANT Machinery Co.,Ltd of China in a trademark and design dispute. It has been ruled that Nantong ANT infringed on the registered MUCK TRUCK product designs in the EU. The Nantong ANT registration and design have been ruled invalid and have been voided. Nantong ANT is no longer allowed to sell their Garden Loaders legally in the EU.

"It is very sad that governments and patent offices charge so much money for registrations and patents," said Terry Rowlands, CEO of Muck Truck. "It limits the coverage and protection a new company has for unique designs and opens the door to counterfeit products and foreign companies like Nantong ANT."

"Nantong ANT stole our design," continued Rowlands, "manufactured cheap versions of the Muck Truck and sold millions of dollars of their junk to re-sellers in the EU. This Chinese company steals intellectual property and profits by selling junk until they get caught. It costs thousands of dollars to pursue legal action and once they lose they just move to the next product theft. In the meantime they made millions of dollars and companies in the EU, USA or Australia cannot go after these stolen profits."

MUCK TRUCK . has won against several importers who have sold these cheap Chinese products. "If you import counterfeit Chinese copies you deserve to get sued," said Rowlands. "Mucktruck will not hesitate to sue your business or go after your personal holdings if you infringe our design rights. We have spent thousands of dollars and several years to develop our high-quality products and we intend to protect our registered designs."

When Mucktruck started with the new range and export into the EU the exposure of the products grew exponentially.

When new companies start to produce products effectively they need to patent/protect or register designs and trademarks in countries where they want to sell.

NO new companies will ever be able to afford to do this as they are not financially secure and they have no one to help them to understand this.

I was one of those companies.

Nantong ANT registered the designs as their own in the Chinese Patent office (pretending it was their own).

Nantong ANT have then registered the same designs in EU on 20/07/2013 as their own.

This is the registration we have just been told has been voided by ourselves because we proved it was false and a copy of our machines.

It is very sad that the governments/patent offices charge so much money for registrations and Patents. It limits the coverage and the protection a new company has for its unique inventions or designs in a very detrimental way. It opens the doors to counterfeit products into the marketplace from companies who really have no rights to make a copy of those products but are basically stealing the intellectual properties and monies earned from new or start-up entrepreneurs. Government agencies such as Patent offices should be government funded or at least partially funded to help grow and support growth within the manufacturing industry instead of supporting this theft.

Nantong ANT sell over 200 million dollars worth of copied products a year into the worldwide market place. They have no products in their portfolio which they have designed themselves from scratch. I have spent 5 years and thousands of hours and monies to stop this company and their importers from selling counterfeit products.

The biggest problem is that a company like Nantong ANT works on a company model which is driven by ROI (return on investment). This means that if eventually i stop them after 5 years from producing the copy of my own machines-they dont care. This is because during those 5 years it took to stop them, they have sold many thousands of machines and made hundreds of thousand of dollars profit and therefore, the return on investment was worth it.

Nantong ANT supplies a new importer in a country, gets paid for the product upfront. Then it is up to me to sue the importer directly who inturn then fights as long as possible without any support from China. "If you import Chinese copies then you deserve to get sued" Mucktruck will not have any mercy for your business or your family relationships if you infringe our design rights.

To most small companies it is not worth the monies or effort needed to stop the Chinese from copying our products. It is just a fact of life that they will and they don't/wont pay any fees for the privilege to do so.

Many companies in the world now have Chinese companies make the products for them in China, they then import the parts and just assemble. They are allowed to import with minimal import duties. SAD but true. The debts will continue to rise unless import duties are imposed and manufacturing is brought back so as to create wealth. Any country which does not produce any products will suffer long term if they become a country with high unemployment and less manufacturing.

Thank you for reading

Terry Rowlands

About Muck Truck USA Muck Truck® motorized wheelbarrows are the versatile piece of equipment perfectly suited to the rental, commercial landscaper, farmer or the residential homeowner who engages in anything more than light outdoor work. All Muck Truck models can be fitted with interchangeable accessories in a matter of seconds - No tools are required. Muck-Truck power wheelbarrows are being used all Europe and North America. Learn more about Muck-Truck on the company web site: http://www.mucktruckamerica.com

GENUINE MUCK-TRUCK® The Worlds Best Selling Mini-Dumper - Power Barrow

Fake, pirated or counterfeit items sold or made in China are found throughout world. It is estimated that 90 percent of products sold in China is copied/counterfeit/fake. The market value of pirated and counterfeit goods produced in China is estimated at over $21 billion per year. By some estimates counterfeiting costs companies that produce the originals $16 billion in sales worldwide.

We at Mucktruck are targeted by fake products. Here are the facts of why we think you should stay away from copied Mucktruck products.

The Facts

Chinese companies are formed “set-up” with monies loaned to them by the government and not Banks. Therefore, when a victim of this crime sues a China company both the Judge and the company effectively is paid from the same entity. The only success Mucktruck has achieved with the battle against Fakes is to pursue the importer distributor of such items into countries which have regulations that support IP (intellectual property) of designers.

If we decide to pursue you as an importer distributor of Chinese copied Mucktrucks we will firstly evaluate your company assets. Then we will send you a letter from our solicitors to ask you to stop. If this fails, we will take legal action against you. We have always won our court cases with intellectual property. The estimate for costs for each of the parties will be approx. $ 250,000.00. The damages we claim are about the same usually.

Your Chinese supplier will not help nor support you. Why would they, you have already paid them and they can just move on to their next victim. Chinese counterfeit companies work on a strategy of R.O.I which simply stands for Return On Investment. Even if you could claim some damages from them as long as they made a profit throughout the whole deal they are happy because their investment netted them profit.

If you are not convinced yet, let us help you with hard facts why you should never buy a “Copy Mucktruck.”

Mucktruck have both registered and unregistered intellectual property rights. If the product you are buying is so similar as to cause confusion as to its source then you will infringe our IP. You decide from the following pictures if it is worth risking your company for a little extra profit. We bought a machine from ANT recently and here are the pictures.